When the bees came to town

On Monday 27th May, we went to the Botanic Gardens. We learned about bees there in a bee section where there was a bee hive with bees coming out. We learned that bees are attracted to particular colours and shapes of flowers. The colours are: mauve, blue, yellow and pink. They like tubular flowers. It is quite common to find bees near tublular flowers.

When we went home we had a little rest and then we went downstairs. When we went down we saw a whole swarm of bees. There was something like 1000 of them! A man came to the door soon after (our next door neighbours had phoned him) and he said that he'd go out and get the bees. The man was wearing a bee protection suit. The suit had this protection face cover with lots of spaces but bees couldn't sting him with his suit on.

Bees can only be in a group with a queen bee, otherwise they have to find a new group. The man got a box and a brush and tipped our table up so that the bees could go on it. It's easier to get bees off a hanging thing, not the ground. At first he got some of them, then he waited for them and moved the table to another place and then he got some more bees. He didn't get all of them but he let us listen to the bees. They made this sounds that was sort of like honeycomb in your throat. It sounded like a tingly feeling in your throat.

In the end, he said that he said he got about a thousand bees into the box. Wow! He hoped he had got the queen bee (which he called the leader) into the box because if he did, the bees would just be worried because they couldn't find the queen and find another group - out of our garden!

My sleepover

On Sunday the 19th of May I had a sleepover at my nanna and grandad's. But before thatI was taken to the Cambridge City Folk Museum. At the museum we went to the kitchen. I put on an apron and pretended to be the shopkeeper. There were lots of things that were laid out on the table to play with. In the last room which was called the childhood room where all the toys were kept In the childhood rooms it had the old dolls house and a replica you could play with. There were lots of other toys and even some books.

At the end of the museum we went to the shop and bought a game called heads and tales.

With nanna and grandad

Wearing boaters with grandad at the Folk Museum

Nanna and I pretending to be at the seaside

What I know about a few of my relatives and ancestors

Today I have learnt a bit about my ancestors and relatives.

1. Richard Kingsnorth from the Commonwealth time (1649-1660) had a story just like John Bunyan.They both Preached to Baptists. But trying to hide from the people who would try to get them in prison. Anyway John Bunyan was found a number of times and put in prison. As for Richard he was safe and nobody found him.
2. Even though Richard had the main story there were  people who came after him.Such as the Pullens. 

We walked up the footpath to the house where Richard Kingsnorth lived and led the first Baptist church there.

The beginning of the walk started at Chapel Lane (it got this name because it was the way the villagers would walk to the church)

The house where Richard Kingsnorth lived in the 1600s (and the church met)

William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce was a hero! He was a hero because he did the hard work of helping abolish the slave trade. Also his friends Clarkson, Pitt, Newton, More, Charles Fox and some more people helped him.

The slave trade was where people from other countries such as Africa were taken to different countries to work. They did things such as getting sugar. All the jobs they did were making other people richer while they were treated terribly.

He married Barbara and had six children and for some of the time he lived in London.

William Wilberforce statue at St John's College

Romantic poetry

On Friday mum took us to Byron's Pool to write Romantic poetry. She told us that we should write about Byron's pool and how we feel about it.

Here's the poem that I wrote. I hope you like it!

The blossoms by the water's edge

The water moves
like a gentle tunnel,
leading to the blossoms.
The trees move in the windy air
beside the lake where the sun shines down.
I see a cottage far down the lake.
I'm happy even if I just see the trees
Blowing in the windy breeze.

About the poem Daffodils by Wordsworth

Today, I was learning about some Romantic poets that had a bit of their life in Cambridge. We read some poems written by Coleridge, Byron and Wordsworth.

My favourite poem was Daffodils, by William Wordsworth. I liked how it started off quite gently and then it suddenly had a big difference with the sound as he sees the daffodils. He suddenly is feeling even happier than he was.

I also like it because it was like a dream or even a day filled with wonder. My favourite part is the last bit when he says:

For oft when on my couch I lie,
in vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
and dances with daffodils.

It's about when he's remembering the daffodils and it makes him feel really happy.

Seals

On Saturday the fifth of May we went to Blakeney Point. Blakeney Point is a place where you can watch birds and seals. First we went for a walk around the marshy area.

Looking at the wildflowers - I worked out later that they were Gorse flowers, using my wildflower book.

To see the seals you have to go for a boat trip unless you have super dupper good binoculars. Here are some pictures from the boat trip.

Some boats that we saw.

The seal colony

Two seals fighting with some seals behind them.

Then we went to Oxburgh Hall. At Oxburgh Hall we went down the priests hole. A priest's hole is where priests used to hide when they were in danger of being captured. Some Catholics let them go and have a priest hole in their house. Here is a picture of me coming out of it.

We also went to the gardens. The grounds were big but there was a smaller formal garden called a 'parterre'.

Bec and me in the garden next to the moat.

Caution: Lots of birds

On the second of May 2013 we went to the Wildlife Discovery Area in Anglesey Abbey.

At the Wildlife Discovery area we went to lots of different places and saw lots of different animals.

One of the places we went to was the wildlife lookout. One of the animals we saw were pheasants.

We also went to the Lime Tree lookout. The Lime Tree lookout was my favourite thing. It was a giant treehouse.

On the way home we bought some peanuts at the shop to put in our bird feeder at home.

Entrance to the wildlife discovery area

Lime Tree Lookout

Bug hotel

pheasant

Bec, Jacob and I with our binoculars

our bird feeder

this is where we put it!

How amazing can a Saturday be?

On Saturday we went to two different museums.

First, we went to the Cowper and Newton Museum (which is in Olney). It had really nice gardens, one of which was called the Summer Garden. Inside the museum were a couple of rooms. One of the rooms was where William Cowper kept his three pet hares. Another room was where there was an original chair, a farmhouse lounge that a lady dared William Cowper to make a poem about.

outside the front of the museum

the lounge that the lady dared Cowper to write a poem about!

A model of a slave ship

me outside the Summer House in the Summer Garden.

 Another room was all about John Newton (who wrote the song Amazing Grace).

Did you know? John Newton was a slave trader (but he stopped later and told people how bad it was to have slaves). Did you know that?
Did you know? John Newton didn't have anything to do about Isaac Newtown. Did you know that?

After more rooms, we went to the John Bunyan museum in Bedford. It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really good. There was a prison there and a quiz. They had been given the pulpit that John Bunyan used, not to mention we were the only people in there so a lady helped us.

a statue of John  Bunyan

outside the Bunyan museum

Coe Fen

Once when we were going home from choir, we saw some cows in Coe Fen that had been put there because it was Spring time. Coe Fen is a grassy, boggy area next to the Cam River and close to the centre of Cambridge. In the Summer, the Cambridge farmers graze their cows there. A couple of days after we first saw them, we went to Coe Fen and saw the cows. This is a movie I made of it. I hope you like it!